COLUMBUS, Ohio — Fighting to survive, Hillary Rodham Clinton is counting on female power to energize her faltering presidential bid. She’s hoping a double-digit lead among women in Ohio is the answer.
“I am thrilled to be running to be the first woman president, which I think would be a sea change in our country and around the world,” the New York senator said this week in Cleveland, emphasizing anew the pioneering aspect of her candidacy.
A woman in the White House, Clinton said, would present “a real challenge to the way things have been done, and who gets to do them and what the rules are.”
The remarks had a call-to-action flair and underscored just how much she is relying on women, always a key part of her support, to help her win Ohio and, perhaps, Texas on Tuesday as she seeks to get back on track in the Democratic nomination fight.
She has urgent reason to prod the sisterhood into action. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has racked up 11 straight wins to lead the convention delegate hunt. Clinton hasn’t won a primary in a month and is looking for big-state victories to breathe new life into her campaign.
Clinton leads in Ohio in recent polling, while Obama has a slight edge in Texas.
Women may hold the key for Clinton, particularly in the Midwestern state. Polls in the past week have shown her with a wide advantage — 17 percentage points in one poll, 18 in another — among Ohio women. She also leads among Texas women, but the margin is slimmer.
“If Hillary is going to regain the front-runner status and win the nomination, it starts with and ends with women,” said Jenny Backus, a Democratic strategist who is not aligned with either candidate. “She has struck a chord with women, especially in Ohio.”
On Thursday, Clinton stopped at a Bob Evans Restaurant in Rio Grande, Ohio, and made a bee line for the counter and the all-female waitstaff. She posed for pictures, arms around them for a photo op worthy of the “Nine to Five” song that often is featured at her events.
“I’ve waited tables before,” she told them. “That was when I was much younger.”
Ohio Democrats say women here admire her for the barriers she has broken and the troubles she has overcome.
That goodwill, they say, coupled with the support of popular Gov. Ted Strickland and her jobs-focused economic message, has resonated with women across economic lines, education levels and ages.
Margie Bennett, 44, a laid-off accountant from Zanesville, says she’s been a Clinton fan for years because of who the senator is, not because she’s a woman.
“She’s a tough fighter. She’s been through a lot. And she’s the best candidate,” Bennett said after a Clinton-led economic round table this week.
Kelly Adams, 24 and a college financial-aid adviser, cited Clinton’s push for universal health care and her promise to bring jobs to Ohio as the main reasons she’s lending her support. Also, she added: “I like the strength that she’s shown and her work as first lady.”
As she campaigns, Clinton tries to strike a balance. She often tells audiences that while she’s proud to be running as a woman, she should be elected because she’s the best candidate and not because of her gender.
Still, at times, she has campaigned alongside her daughter, Chelsea, and mother, Dorothy Rodham, and invoked an us-versus-them pitch.
“In so many ways, this all-women’s college prepared me to compete in the all-boys club of presidential politics,” she said in November at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, speaking about the challenges of being a woman in a campaign environment that men long have dominated.
The candidate has, however, struggled with just how much of her femininity to show.
After women turned away from her in Iowa, Clinton grew emotional days before the New Hampshire primary.
“This is very personal for me,” she said, adding, “Some of us are right, and some of us are not. Some of us are ready, and some of us are not.”
That moment of humility has been credited with helping her win back women who ultimately brought her victory in New Hampshire.
She hopes they deliver again Tuesday.
Related
WASHINGTON — Clinton fundraising rebounds in February
More than doubling her January fundraising total, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will raise $35 million in February, the Democratic presidential candidate’s advisers said Thursday.
That would be Clinton’s biggest monthly fundraising total yet and would represent a remarkable recovery for her campaign. Sen. Barack Obama raised far more than she did last month, $36 million to $14 million, and she was forced to lend her campaign $5 million.
Obama’s campaign, reacting promptly to her campaign’s announcement, promised an even higher number but divulged no totals.
Clinton officials, including campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, announced the totals in a conference call with contributors. The campaign announced that it had raised the money from 300,000 donors, including 200,000 new contributors, most of them donating through the Internet. Aides said almost all the money was for the primary election.
